


Love You Without Being Told

by ratherbeblue



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratherbeblue/pseuds/ratherbeblue
Summary: The soulmate AU literally no one asked for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song 'Soulmate' by Natasha Bedingfield.

Taako never put much stock into the whole soulmate thing. Maybe it was the lack of proof in his own life or just that it seemed to damn much like a fairy tale for him to take seriously, but he never cared one way or the other about finding his.

So instead of searching he would let men come and go, some desperately pretending, others as uncaring as Taako himself. He wasn’t sure which he pitied more.

When his life fell apart for the second time he had all but given up on ever finding someone that would love him. He had lead an entire audience of people to their graves, but Sazed was still there. They traveled under the cover of night and more than once Taako’s eyes would flit over the rudimentary _“Hello”_ on Sazed’s forearm.

There are just too many variables when it comes to soulmates, he would think, how many people existed in the world with the same mundane greeting? How many people settled for the wrong person for years without knowing? And if they did find the right one, were they really happy?

Taako had known so many people in his life, met so many during his travels. Unmatched, unmarked, platonic soulmates, people married for fifty years with matching script scrawling along their bodies, that last one only happened from a distance.

Sometimes Taako would run his fingers along the words on his hip lightly, cherishing them, other times he would scratch and cut and try to will the dark words away, mostly he tried to forget they were there.

It was somewhat of an unspoken rule that you don’t try anything with someone whose soulmate had died. Taako would be the first to admit he usually didn’t have any respect for societal rules, but that alone is what stopped him from coming onto Magnus the first time they met.

When he flexed Taako saw the white scaring glint in the sunlight, a strange and teasing _“Is there anything between those sideburns of yours?”_ in chicken scratch running along his bicep.

He never asks Magnus about it.

He never asks anyone, not Merle who he knows was married at some point, not Carrey or Killian who look at each other like they’re made of starlight, maybe he’s afraid to but Taako simply tells himself that he doesn’t care.

Maybe it’s the great irony of the situation that makes it so he feels so suddenly struck months later when they’re on another mission.

“Well this is hardly fair.”

At those familiar words Taako felt himself trying to scream through his paralysis, but between the cool ground of the lab and his unmoving mouth not much noise came out.

The fact that the first time he hears those words is when they’re coming out of a giant crystal golem just further proves to Taako that the universe is pulling some huge cosmic joke on him. And that might just be the reason that, when Merle finally frees him, he decides to try out one of his more sadistic spells on him.

“Hey thug, what’s your name? I’m about to tentacle your dick.”

“ _What_?”

“You heard me! I’m going to get you into some temp porn let me get that name real quick so I know how to credit you in the tentacle porn I’m about to make with your body.”

“Wait, wait. My name’s Kravitz, but uh,” The golem looks around for a second before concentrating back into a ball of light, the crystal falling to the ground around him. Quickly the light reformed into the figure of a tall man in a suit. “There, that’s better.”

Taako feels his jaw drop open as he takes in the stranger’s appearance. He’s just about the definition of tall, dark, and handsome and although he was trying to kill them just seconds before Taako couldn’t care less, all that talk about his body suddenly took on a whole new context.

“He-Hello.” He murmurs.

“Grim Reaper!” Merle shouts, and for the first time Taako notices the dark flowing robe surrounding the man.

“Oh!” Taako gasps, he always guessed he would die young, but he never thought it would happen so suddenly like this.

“You’re not too far off, but listen,” He looks directly at Taako but still seems to be searching for something. “Taako? I’m not here to kill you, but it now seems we need to talk.”

And with that Taako feels himself being pulled from the space he was standing in, or more precisely, the space was being pulled around him. He could hear shouts from Merle and Magnus, but his eyes were locked to Kravitz where he still stood, about ten feet away as the space around them fell apart and then re-formed.

“Listen, I don’t mean to pull you away from your friends, and I’ll put you right back so they won’t even notice you were gone, but I really needed to talk to you in private for a moment, okay?”

Taako just nods dumbly, trying to process what’s happening while also taking in the view around him. They’re in a small but well furnished house, there’s a piano in one corner and a cluttered dining table behind Kravitz, the only thing that’s not in impeccable order.

He hears Kravitz sigh and walk towards him.

“You really have no idea about what’s going on, do you?”

“That would be correct, my man.”

Kravitz sighs heavily and shrugs off his cloak, letting it pool around his feet before he steps out of it and into Taako’s personal space.

Once he gets there he moves to unbutton his pants.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! As much as I love where this is going, don’t you think you should buy a guy dinner first?”

“What? Oh! No! That’s…that’s not what is happening. Just look.” He lowers the waistband of his pants and in the process reveals a jutting hipbone that would make Taako’s mouth water if he weren’t distracted by the flowing script of words running over it.

 _‘Hey thug, what’s your name? I’m about to tentacle your dick’_ written right there in his own handwriting.

“Ha….Haha! _Oh my god_!” Taako screams with laughter. “You- You had that _written_ on your _body_ , holy shit, dude! Aahahaha”

Taako doesn’t see Kravitz pull up his pants again through his eyes that are shut with laughter, but he does feel cold fingers wrap around one of his wrists.

“Now you show me yours.” Kravitz told him, suddenly all business.

Taako replies with an easy smile, his cheeks still flushed.

“Okay, okay, but you have to admit it’s a little funny.”

“You’re not intimidated at all by me are you?” Kravitz asks in a bit of wonderment as Taako unwraps himself from what seem to be an insane amount of layers.

“I’ve been told I have a problem with knowing when I should be afraid.”  

Taako hadn’t been thinking about it before, but now that it was mentioned he did start to feel a little nervous, and not just for his life. He was beginning to feel heavy with the knowledge that he was standing right next to a man that was more likely than not his soulmate. Someone that he had never wanted to believe existed, and he just happened to be some sort of grim reaper.

Suddenly he felt doubt creep into play.

“You know what, my guy? It’s been real, but uh…you’re right I’m very intimidated and I think I should go back immediately.”

“What?” Kravitz’ eyes are still locked to the fingertips dancing along the laces of Taako’s breeches.

“Do you mind?” Taako feigned offense. “Now kindly zap me back to where I belong.”

“No, no I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, I- Listen, I’m a bounty hunter, but it’s not _your_ bounty I’m after. You have no reason to be afraid, now please, I have to know.” Kravitz was beginning to sound desperate towards the end, and it’s enough to melt Taako’s thin resolve.

“Okay, fine. But you’re definitely going to have to explain that whole bounty thing later.”

“O-of course.” He was beginning to look a lot like a kicked puppy, but Taako imagined that if Kravitz agreed to have him there would be a lot of time to make up for that.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Taako spoke both to himself and Kravitz as he pulled the top of his breeches over his left hip bone, allowing Kravitz to see the words so familiar to him.

A harshly slanted _‘Well this is hardly fair.”._

“It’s really you.” He breathes.

Kravitz presses his ice cold fingers into Taako’s hips and he shivers not just from the temperature, but from how _right_ it feels.

“Forgive me.” Kravitz tells Taako, but before he can question it there is a pair of lips against his, cold and firm and _perfect_.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Complication(s) in fate(s)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12804306) by [zlilyanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zlilyanne/pseuds/zlilyanne)




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